Cognitive-Affective Factors Affecting Mental Health in Young Adults: A Structural Equation Modelling Examination of Mindfulness Facets, Metacognition, Resilience, and Creativity
Rose Seneviratne, Matt Garner, Emma Claire Palmer-Cooper
PsyArXiv December 9, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/p2e8b_v1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Cross-sectional study using structural equation modelling |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 841 |
| Population | Non-clinical young adults aged 18 to 30 |
| Measures | GAD-7, PHQ-9, PSS-10, FFMQ, MSAS-18, ER89, RDCA |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | A model in which metacognition, resilience, and creativity relate to lower psychological distress indirectly via mindfulness facets fit better than the reverse ordering, explaining 54% of distress variance. Acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity uniquely predicted lower distress, while observing showed a small positive association. Creativity had opposing indirect paths: higher distress via observing and lower distress via nonreactivity. |
Abstract
Objectives: To examine how mindfulness, metacognition, resilience, and creativity influence psychological distress in young adults and test two alternative pathway models.
Methods: Cross-sectional structural equation modelling (SEM) tested two models in N = 841 non-clinical young adults aged 18 to 30. Psychological distress was operationalised as a latent factor using anxiety (GAD-7), depression (PHQ-9), and stress (PSS-10). Mindfulness facets (FFMQ), metacognition (MSAS-18), resilience (ER89), and creativity (RDCA) were modelled as predictors or mediators depending on the model. Fit was assessed with standard indices (CFI, TLI, RMSEA, and SRMR).
Results: The model in which metacognition, resilience, and creativity related to lower psychological distress indirectly via mindfulness facets showed better fit than the reversed ordering (R2 = .54). Acting with awareness (β = -.29), nonjudging (β = -.39), and nonreactivity (β = -.20) uniquely predicted lower distress; observing showed a small positive association (β = .08). Resilience showed both a direct effect and indirect associations via increased awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity. Metacognition showed indirect associations via increased awareness and nonreactivity. Creativity showed bivalent indirect associations: higher distress via increased observing and lower distress via nonreactivity.
Conclusions: In young adults, attitudinal mindfulness facets, acting with awareness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity, showed the most consistent links with lower distress and appeared to carry the effects of metacognition, resilience, and creativity. The dual pathway of creativity suggests context-sensitive implications for mental health intervention design. Findings support prioritising these facets alongside careful integration of metacognition, resilience, and creativity when designing prevention and therapeutic strategies for this population.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and Nonmeditating Samples Experienced meditators and nonmeditating comparison groups | 2008 | Cross-sectional study | |
| Neural Correlates of Dispositional Mindfulness During Affect Labeling Adult participants | 2007 | Observational cross-sectional | n = 27 |
| Assessing mindfulness in children and adolescents: Development and validation of the Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM). School-aged children and adolescents | 2011 | Cross-sectional validation study | n = 1,413 |
| Mindfulness and self-compassion as predictors of psychological wellbeing in long-term meditators and matched nonmeditators Experienced meditators and demographically matched nonmeditators | 2012 | Cross-sectional study | n = 152 |
| Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress Undergraduates | 2008 | Cross-sectional, correlational |